Putting together a seating chart is one of the most important – and difficult – parts of planning both your ceremony and your reception. That's why it's a good idea to follow some of the tips below so your seating decisions will be a little easier.

Ceremony Seating

Ceremony seating can be pretty straightforward. Traditionally, one side of the location is set aside for guests of the groom and the other for guests of the bride. Usually, the parents and immediate family of the couple are seated in the first row.

Problems can arise, however, if the number of guests representing the bride and groom are not nearly equal. In that case, you may want to simply alternate seating people on one side or the other. You can also set aside some of the front rows for special family members. In their invitations, you may want to send a special note they can bring to the wedding so the ushers will know where to seat them.

Reception Seating

While ceremony seating can be a challenge, reception seating is often tricky. You want to make your guests as comfortable as possible, but you also want to invite conversation and fun into the party so people get to know each other and maybe even meet new people.

The first part of your seating decisions is the head table. The head table is optional but is common at receptions. Basically, it's a table in clear view of the other guests where the bride and groom sit. If you have a head table, you'll need to decide who shares the table with you. The most common choices are the wedding party or the immediate family. If you choose the wedding party, you may want to ask their significant others or dates to join them. If you have children in your wedding party, allow them to sit with their family or in a special kids' section of the reception.

Next, you'll need to decide the best way to arrange everyone at the tables. Make sure you have a layout of the reception site's seating to work with and make a few copies since you may change your mind about where to seat people along the way. Remember that if your immediate family will not be joining you at the head table they should be seating in the nearest tables to you. Divorced parents can each be seated at different tables if it would be awkward for them to sit together.

Although you may hear some people suggest splitting couples up so they sit at different tables, this is rarely a good idea. Couples come together for a reason, so they should be allowed to sit together. However, don't seat single people with a table full of couples – that would just make the single person feel left out. Instead, try to keep couples with couples and singles with singles. It's also a good idea to seat an even number of people at each table so people can break into pairs for conversations without leaving anyone out.

Of course, you probably would love for your single friends to meet someone special at your wedding and there's nothing wrong with rigging the seating to help make that happen. Seat single male and female guests together at tables so they have a chance to mingle without feeling awkward.

Finally, you need to make it easy for everyone to find their seats. Have a good size seating chart placed near every entrance of the reception location, then have place cards clearly marked with your guests' names on the appropriate seats. You may also want to assign a family member to help some of your guests find their seats if they have trouble.

Remember to plan your seating carefully. The key to a successful reception is having happy guests and bad seating can make that very hard to achieve.